So i went to a local waterfall, it was my first time trying to shoot waterfalls...came out pretty miserable...couldnt manage to get the right exposure with the .5-1 second shutter speed. tried everything i could think of:iso 100, auto iso, daytime WB, auto WB, aperture highest number possible...nothing was working.

These are a few of that were worthy keeping...already tried my best to get the exposure looking right. could someone with better editing skills try to make this one look right? thanks!

The second picture doesn't look all that bad. You definitely have to work a bit on composition, but shooting in broad daylight like that will be tough to get that slower shutter speed without having a filter on the lense to block some of that light. I did a quick edit, although the picture does seem to be oversaturated. I spent about 2 min just quickly to set the white balance, rotate, crop, shadow/highlight, and levels to help tone down the highlights. Ultimately, you needed a filter, polarizer or neutral density to help slow down that shutter (or just speed it up, freeze the water a bit more). Hope this helps

Hate to say this, but when there is nothing there you can't fix it. Sometimes when a shot means something to you you gotta do a re-shoot. The next time, plant that camera on a tripod and make three exposures. A highlight detail one, dark middle tone detail one and a normal one. If your using any CS version of Photoshop you can use the HDR to piece the three together or place in layers and with use of quick mask to make the Layer Masks you'll get the long range image you want. I think you'll be able to figure it out as to how but if you need more info just ask. One more thing, a filter is not an answer, the range of light was too great for the camera so you couldn't get both ends of the scale. That's why the multipal exposures and the extra image work.
Arnie

If you were going for that smooth water fall effect in the middle of a bright day with no Neutral Density filter, you were destined to fail. You can't open the shutter up for that long in that light regardless of your f-stop and ISO. Just go back at during the softer hours of the day and try again. Use a tripod too to avoid the shake.

So i went to a local waterfall, it was my first time trying to shoot waterfalls...came out pretty miserable...couldnt manage to get the right exposure with the .5-1 second shutter speed. tried everything i could think of:iso 100, auto iso, daytime WB, auto WB, aperture highest number possible...nothing was working.

These are a few of that were worthy keeping...already tried my best to get the exposure looking right. could someone with better editing skills try to make this one look right? thanks!
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The thing you should have thought of was is to get there earlier or have stayed later. If the falls are local your time might be better spent going back and reshooting it right rather than trying to fix a poor exposure.

yeah it was mid day and sunny so i knew it was going to be tough...i had a CP on the lens and was using a tripod. i just couldnt find the right exposure and now when it gets close to the right exposure its just too contrasted